(A/N: I tried to get Sheogorath's personality down as much as I could. Tell me if I was right or did I just totally make him look like a baffoon?)
The two fell out of the vortex landing on a dusty patch of ground. Ra'tarnik lay on top of Scar-Tail and the skilled, murdering argonian pushed the large khajiit from off of him saying, "Who do you think I am? Go get your kitty jollies somewhere else!"
Ra'tarnik brushed the dust off of himself as he stood up saying, "Even if I was that way, I would rather go after a one-hundred year old dunmer with one eye and a bad limp!"
"Good!" Scar-Tail said, standing brushing himself off as he looked around with his reluctant partner doing the same. The two saw an awesome sight as they now were focused on seeing there surroundings. They saw dust for about three hundred paces all around them that ended into a stone and metal wall. Their keen eyes followed the wall upward and saw all sorts of races of Tameirel pilling into seats. They were in an arena!
The two stood back-to-back with their weapons pulled. Scar-Tail with both of his short-swords of silver and Ra'tarnik holding his two war axes with readiness.
Reaching his head backwards, Scar-Tail said in Ra'tarnik's ear, "Do you see the boy anywhere in the crowd?"
Ra'tarnik looked about the crowd as people took their seats, fiddling with their mundane clothing. He even saw some that had weapons hidden underneath the clothing. There were plenty of children in the stadium as well but not one Imperial boy who looked remotely close to Apoltis. Growling out, Ratarnik replied, "No."
"Neither do I." Scar-Tail said, scanning the other half of the arena.
Suddenly, a voice boomed out from the front of the arena catching both of their attention. "Is this what you are looking for?"
The two saw a massive viewing box with one single, decorated chair. In it was Sheogorath himself. He was overlooking the battleground in the arena like the omnipotent creature he was. His hand was palm open leading the two's attention to a small cage-like contraption containing Apoltis. He gripped the bars like a bird in a cage struggling to get out yelling, "Scar, I'm scared!"
Scar-Tail showed his small yet sharp teeth yelling up at Apoltis, "Don't worry boy! We are coming to get you!"
Sheogorath smiled a wicked devilish grin and said, "No you are not! Not unless you want the boy to experience death more times then a thousand wars of dead soldiers!"
Swinging his two war axes in his hands, Ra'tarnik pointed up at Sheogorath and yelled up at him, "Let the kid go, you maniacal daedra! It is me you want!"
"Oh Ra'atarnik, I am mildly disappointed in you. You actually thought I took the kid because I am interested in you?"
The two beast warriors looked at each other a bit puzzled.
"I took the child because I wanted all three of you. The whole kitten-caboodle, you might say."
Ra'tarnik couldn't resist, "For what?"
"Well, I am glad you asked." Sheogorath stood up and outstretched his arms, "This world is in need of entertainment. The chaos around here has gotten a little stale. So I thought I would put on a little show of showmanship involving one of my favorite khajiits. I also thought I would invite his close friend because I could tell you both would give all of us quite a show. I mean, what's better then one bull-head beast putting a damper on my fun? Two of them!"
Scar-Tail stepped forward saying, "Let the child go or so help me Akatosh I will carve your black heart from your daedric chest!"
Slightly snarling at Scar-Tail, Sheogorath looked at the dirt under his nails and said, "As tempting as the offer is I will have to decline. You see, you scaly little brute, he is wanted by a very powerful daedra worshipper. Not one of mine but he has a very irresistible offer on the table to any and all daedra who can deliver the small little meat chunk."
"Not if I get to him first!" Scar-Tail hissed out.
"That's the spirit, argonian! You are going to need it." With that, the daedra lord spun around like he had just been doing a dance and pulled a lever to his left. It was a big lever and made a loud clunk that echoed around the arena as it flew back.
Down in the arena battleground, a large gate began to rise in front of the two warriors right under the viewing box Sheogorath was in. It was at least thirty feet high and began to steadily raise upward into the arena structure. It was releasing something out of the darkness.
Standing ready to face Oblivion the two warriors stood. Scar-Tail looked over at Ra'tarnik and hissed out, "You think it will be something big?"
Ra'tarnik just growled a bit and said in a harder voice then normal, "In Border Watch he took over people's bodies, turned the sky red, killed crops and livestock, and pretty much scared everybody to death. Including me. We are here in his world now. Honestly, I am not worried about it being big. I am worried at just what its going to take to kill it!"
The gate was fully open now and out of the darkness came a roar of unquestionable terror. It sounded like a colossal sized bear. Scar-Tail and Ra'tarnik both jumped in readiness. They were not afraid but they were wary.
Apoltis heard it too and looked down at the arena. All he saw was his two friends down in the dust of the battle ground preparing to go to war. He looked over at Sheogorath who was no more than three feet away from him. He went over to the side of the cage and looked up at the daedra lord asking, "What are they facing down there?"
Awkwardly, Sheogorath turned his head towards Apoltis and answered, "Now if I told you that, it would ruin the surprise. Wouldn't it?"
Letting out a frustrated breath, Apoltis turned his head back down to the arena and watched on in a stunned horror at what exited out of the arena's pit.
The two warriors down on the ground watched on in preparation and intimidation as one long, ghastly, tombstone grey leg came out of the blackness. Stepping onto the ground like a moving stone pillar. A large plume of dust accompanied the leg as it stepped into the light. It looked similar to a mud-crab only five-hundred times bigger.
Another large leg then stepped out opposite the other. It too impacted the ground with force and a cloud of dust raised up the leg ominously. The two legs moving back, supporting some great weight beyond the darkness.
Slowly, a beast made its way out of the darkness. The two watched the horrible thing crawl into the light as they could not even begin to guess what deep hellish abyss of Oblivion this thing came from. At least four spherical eyes in a row that protruded from an upside down, egg-shaped head. Mandibles underneath looking like a spider's but moving like a grasshopper's. Dripping with a clear ooze-like substance from hungry, sharp fangs.
It suddenly rushed out of the archway going after the two. Scar-Tail was the first one to move as this incredibly large beast chased him. Ra'tarnik got a better look as he was somewhat frozen with amazement having never seen such a large or evil beast. Its body was mostly like a spider and it even had a large abdomen that followed right behind it. It had ten legs though instead of a spider's eight but it moved just like a spider after the argonian.
Scar-Tail rushed over to the nearest wall to escape the tromping, speeding monster. It came at him hungrily as he ran to escape the nearly twenty-five foot arachnoid monster.
His feet pounded the dirt in the arena as Scar-Tail's nimbleness was put to the test. The large beast right on his heels, Scar-Tail ran at the closest wall and suddenly ran right up it changing direction while still being on the wall separating the crowd from the terror below.
The beast followed him right up the wall, sliding sideways and clambering up the wall right after him. Scar-Tail ran sideways across the wall until gravity took hold and he jumped right down to the ground. His feet hitting hard with enough force to propel him forward as he kept the racing pace. The large-legged monster followed right behind him coming off the wall easier than Scar-Tail did. With its legs gliding off the wall like a well-oiled machine.
It followed right after him as Scar-Tail ran right past Ra'tarnik. He yelled out to him as he ran past, "Well, you going to give me a hand or not?"
The giant Oblivion behemoth crawled right over Ra'tarnik as he yelled out to the running argonian, "Oh, I'm sorry I thought you were having fun." His sarcasm was not appreciated by Scar-Tail.
Twirling his two war-axes, Ra'tarnik ran after the giant beast as it hunted down Scar-Tail. Ra'tarnik had a hard time keeping up with the beast not being as nimble as the argonian assassin. He was right next to the back leg as it stomped in near unison with the others. The khajiit warrior still couldn't believe he was doing this as he tried to find a good spot to bury his weapons.
Moving his hand near his thigh, Scar-Tail was searching for one of his hidden daggers, sheathing his swords not wanting to get too close to the ugly monster. He grabbed a small hilt and pulled the dagger from his leg keeping up his stout running. Panting and knowing of wolves that couldn't run as fast as he was.
Using the wall as leverage, he kicked off of it, back flipping with grace that any cat would be jealous of. He spun right around to face the beast and threw the dagger right at the thing's head. It flew through the air like an odd shaped arrow and hit dead center of the mandibles.
It sunk deep into the flesh but it failed to slow down the beast at all. Scar-Tail ran off to the other side of arena, limited to running around in circles again. Unable to fight off the large monster effectively.
Still looking for a good spot to plant one of his war axes, Ra'tarnik had seen Scar-Tail's agility and was more than impressed then by it. He had fought a lot of the different peoples from Cyrodiil but he believed he had never seen such an act of prowess.
He finally found the right site and reached back with all his strength and suddenly struck down on the large moving column of a leg. The monster stopped abruptly and screamed out with a high pitched noise; sounding somewhat like a strangled mouse. Ra'tarnik then planted his other ax and he began to scale the beast. He got to its abdomen quickly but by then, the monster began bucking and flailing around, trying to get rid of the warrior khajiit.
Turning around, Scar-Tail watched in slight relief that Ra'tarnik had gotten the beast off of him. He wondered if the warrior cat-man could finish the monster off by himself. He got his answer quick.
Strike after strike, Ra'tarnik scaled the back of the beast as he edged his way towards the head. It swung around like a raging bull as it crawled around the arena. It tried in vain to rid itself of the persistent warrior as it charged around the arena. The one thing it did accomplish though was stopping Ra'tarnik from making any more progress. He was so taken back by the force of the monster thundering around the arena that his strength had reached its limit. He was fighting both the beast and the force of gravity. He hung on tight against it all as the monster circled the arena.
Scar-Tail's keen reptilian eyes followed the beast as it charged around the arena. He sunk down low to the ground waiting for his own opportunity. He pulled out one silver short-sword and waited for his moment. When the rampaging behemoth passed over him, he struck, popping himself like a top and driving his sword right into the under belly of the furious creature.
The monster nearly tripped over its own legs as it felt the entirety of Scar-Tail's blade drive deep into its anatomy. It still kept running regardless as it now tried to get both of the fierce combatants off of itself.
Now, both fighters were pinned to the monster as it raged through the arena. Both beast-people struggling to do more damage to the spider-like creature than they had already done. Ra'tarnik and Scar-Tail clung to their weapons for dear life as the monster once in awhile slammed its body into the guarding walls.
Apoltis watched the events unfold from his cage, gripping the bars with worry for both. They looked like small, strange insects trying to overwhelm a spider. He looked up at Sheogorath who seemed to be exceedingly enjoying the utter mayhem.
The daedra lord looked at the boy with a sadistic smile across his face asking Apoltis, "What? Are you not enjoying this?" He looked back at the arena grounds, "This is what they live for boy. This is why their blood flows through their veins. The thrill of the kill." Sheogorath cocked his head back at the boy and slyly said, "In a way, I am giving them what they so desperately need to survive. I wonder, do they travel with you because they like you or because they know a powerful enemy is after you? One that can give them a challenge that no mere mortal can give them."
Blinking, Apoltis thought about Sheogorath's words. He looked at the grounds of the arena and wondered if that really was the only reason they followed him. He then looked back at Sheogorath as the daedra lord had his attention on the action down below, Apoltis yelled out, "No! You are wrong about them! Ra'tarnik defended the people of Border Watch out of honor. Maybe he does live for the kill but he only kills things that would otherwise kill others! He is a good person.
Scar, is a good person too. Even though he does not know it himself. He saved my life. More than once. I have seen it in his eyes. And even though he doesn't show it, I know he cares for me. He is a dragon knight!" Apoltis's eyes became filled with hate and rage for the daedra lord, "And I hope he gets a chance to show you how good of a knight he really is!"
Sheogorath sneered and responded, "Well, you better hope he is part dragon because then he might last longer than ten seconds against me!"
Back down in the dirt of the arena, the oblivion spider slammed into the wall and this time it stayed against it. It tried racking its back against the wall trying to get Ra'tarnik off. The khajiit warrior was already too far up its back to be affected.
Scar-Tail's sword slipped a bit out of the creature opening up a perfect opportunity. He let go of the sword's hilt and dropped to the ground as the big daedra crawled up against the wall. He pulled out his second sword and rushed up a front twitching leg and jumped at the pinnacle of the limb. He spun in the air with his sword held high above his head and planted the blade right down into the thing's neck.
The sword's point blasted out of the underside of the neck causing a dark green ooze to spurt from the wound. The thing let out that long, mousey screech and went into a psychotic run of the arena.
Scar-Tail and Ra'tarnik both held on for dear life with the argonian assassin kneeling down, pushing the blade in farther on the rampaging creature with Ra'tarnik being thrown off of the giant monster.
Hitting hard, Ra'tarnik rolled on the ground and kicked up a trail of dust as he rolled all the way to the other side of the arena loosing both of his axes. He got up rather quickly and watched in awe as the monster went right over him in a rampage.
Scar-Tail hung on as the thing finally had a spasm jumping into the air and turning onto its back where it continued to flail and let out that screech of pain. Scar-Tail had jumped off the monster and had landed on his feet as he watched the monster convulse on the ground. It made a huge cloud of dirt as it twitched and convulsed in the arena.
Backing away from the injured daedra, Scar-Tail joined Ra'tarnik looking at him with intensity. The two then ran at the thing and Scar-Tail grabbed his silver short-sword out of the thing's abdomen and began to repeatedly stab it. The arachnoid rolled sideways to get away from the blood raging argonian. It exposed its back and the two warriors easily grabbed their other weapons and began a spree of chops, hacks, and slashes as they tore the creature apart. It rolled around and flung its legs at the two but to no avail.
Keeping up the onslaught, the two cut and hacked until there was nearly nothing left. Its motion slowed until it was just a dead, giant mess of green and black mush. Green entrails and anatomy leaked out of the monster as it laid dead on the ground. It began to crease into a ball and stayed in that position.
Finally, the two backed off from the dead creature only hacking and slashing at dead meat. Both beast-people backed up against the guarding wall and slid down it, sitting down, slightly exhausted from the fight.
The crowd stood in uproarious applause and even Sheogorath stood clapping for the two. The arena must have applauded for nearly a minute before Sheogorath calmed them down and said to the two, "Brilliant! Truly a spectacle of chaos and death! Now, lets see how you do against something that has experience." He turned his attention to the crowd, "Ladies and gentlemen, you have seen these two beat down the worst of the wildlife that the Shivering Isles had to offer but now they will face off against one who knows terror. I present the champion of the arena: Big Red!"